Can you expand on when competition came to Seattle and how? I've been using Condo Internet (now Wave Broadband) for something close to 5-6 years. When was the tipping point in terms of competition?
Centurylink now offers fiber gigabit to the home for about $65 or so a month.
It happened because a former mayor (Ed Murray, who has since left office after a personal scandal) made it easier for ISPs to build out their networks and removed homeowners and neighborhood groups from the process which previously allowed them to block things like communications boxes on sidewalks.
At the time, a bunch of local columnists moaned about this "corporate giveaway"[1] -- but it's pretty clear in retrospect it was the right move.
Don't forget about Google Webpass, they started advertising heavily in Seattle area starting about a year ago.
I switched to them earlier last year due to having periodic issues with WaveG in my new apt building about 8 months into my lease (their technician would come a week or two after I report constant outages, fix something in the server room of my building, and then the issues would start again in a few weeks; haven't had any issues with WaveG at my previous apt though).
Service has been great, pricing is even cheaper than WaveG (I pay about $50/mo for their gig fiber offering), no contracts or any other lock-in (unless you pick the option to pay for the whole year upfront for a small discount). It definitely does feel like there is a good amount of real competition in Seattle now.
Yup! My apartment building was pre-wired for fiber and I can get WaveG, Century Link, or WebPass. I can also get Comcast if I wanted to torture myself.
That’s the most options I have ever had in my entire life for an ISP. We’re with WaveG and have no reason to switch but the fact that I have multiple fiber options if I need to makes me really happy.
In Brooklyn, I couldn’t get FiOS in my building even though the building across the street and next door could do it. Something with the zoning and no matter how hard we (and Verizon) tried, nada. The upshot was Cablevision was an exceptional ISP (let me run a server out of the apartment as part of the written TOS, which was incredible), but it was still slower than FiOS.
In Atlanta, my parents’ house was prewired for fiber and gigabit but they have been stuck with not even the fastest available cable because of ISP tie-ups. It’s painful and they have zero choice.
> The upshot was Cablevision was an exceptional ISP (let me run a server out of the apartment as part of the written TOS, which was incredible), but it was still slower than FiOS.
This is no longer the case since Altice purchased cable vision/optimum. They jacked up the prices and Andy reduced quality of service.
I apologize for my last comment. I didn’t address the character or nature of Ed Murray. I addressed what he did. What he did do. He did do what he was accused of. I’m glad to take the downvotes to vocally say that I believe his victims. The vast majority of sexual assault victims never see a jury, and even if we do we never stand a chance of proof in that court.
It’s not just a legal matter. I’m amazed that as a victim of sexual assault I’m repeatedly being lectured about the burden of proof of sexual assault. I suppose I can just assume y’all don’t believe me either unless I go to court to confront my assaulters and win?
CenturyLink fiber is relatively recent to the Seattle area (2017 or 2018) and serves a broader customer base than Wave née Condo.
Condo was historically only available in a small number of buildings very close to the Westin building downtown (site of the Seattle Internet Exchange). It is slightly broader now, but only slightly.
Here's a big old PDF of Seattle area internet service (2019)[1]. Most of Seattle is CenturyLink + Comcast. The second biggest portion is Comcast-only. Wave covers very little of the city.
Seems like I was hearing my Seattle friends brag about their Centurylink Fiber quite a long time ago -- I want to say 5 or 8 years. Maybe the initial rollout was small and it took awhile to get going?
I'm a Seattle native, down in the bay area now, and JUST got gigabit fiber. Couldn't be happier.
Maybe CenturyLink rolled out to a limited availability sooner than I'm remembering. There was also a very limited Verizon FTTH rollout on the east side some time earlier as well, but I don't know anyone who was in a service area for it.
The speedy providers are all jumping over each other to compete, now that the "gentlemen's agreement" between providers is no longer a thing... but they are cherry picking from people willing to pay and easily providing the service.
Seems like maybe 3 years ago when all the cable companies were able to compete without exclusivity by block?
In my condo building of 200+ units we have 5 providers now:
- Wave broadband cable
- Comcast cable
- Wave G (10Gbps connection to the building)
- Webpass Google Fiber (microwave to the building)
- CenturyLink (DSL maybe?)
The bummer is outside the high-rise towers, there is not much competition in the neighborhoods and single family homes it seems.
I'm going to say "Probably not". You're talking about people who have chosen to live in lower-density housing with lower internet speeds. I'm sure they'd love higher internet speeds, but not so much that they'd give up the 'lower density housing' part :)
